Be safe at work

A refinery I'm working in just had a small, but very intense explosion during the turnaround. 5 people injured, one critical, needed a helivac but they said weather wasn't good to fly. One person involved only had their boots on afterwards, cloths were no where to be found. I was about 80 yards from the explosion in our tool trailer, it was extremely loud with an intense shockwave, and I felt it in my chest enough to almost take my breath away. I doubt we go in tomorrow night since they need to investigate it.

If you're involved in any kind of trade, double and triple check your permits, JSAs, and walk down your job, don't take anyone's word that it's all good to go. Nothing in this world is worth a life altering injury.

Everyone with my company is OK, but im worried about everything going forward. Moral is definitely down.

Be safe everyone, you don't want your loved ones getting the call that you were injured on the job.

 

Good message that is often the victim of complacency. We get comfortable in our routines, and then become lax, or we are fully prepared and the Universe decides to kick us in the nuts anyway. Either way, it's in everybody's best interest to stay up on safety.

I'm glad that you are ok, physically, and I pray that those injured can make full recoveries.

 

God Bless You Brother! Stay Safe!

 

Always, safety first!!

 

Just had a contractor for our company die few days ago, crane operator with a suspended load, load came crashing into cab of crane, immediate death

 

I hated the old saying, "If you followed all the safety rules you'd never get anything done."
Just the opposite was true. Being organized and professional about your duties kept one both safe and productive. While at Conrail we had a safety motivational video about a man severely burned in a refinery accident. I actually got to see this in person and meet him. His pain and suffering saved many lives. I think his name was Charlie. Off to Google it....

Edit: Found it. https://www.charliemorecraft.com/sa...yQ9Qv_ZpZSpQWDowLg0EIipwZ3J8Ph_RoCg-IQAvD_BwE

https://youtu.be/ECHw0y9CQUQ

 

Man that's rough... it seems like injuries and fatalities are commonplace in my line of work, you always hear about someone getting severely injured or killed, and even if it's not at the plant we are working in, we have a safety stand down and bring it to everyone's attention, just to heighten their awareness.

I know people like to make fun of safety, and break the rules because they're inconvenient, but when it's someone you work with that is the victim of the incident, it's everything but funny then.

Today was one of those days where I saw grown men crying and hugging each other, probably relatives of the injured. I just hope going forward everyone takes extra precaution. I'll keep everyone updated as I hear more.

 

Very sobering. Part of the site I'm at is in turnaround right now and we've had trouble getting enough qualified labour. We've had so many minor incidents that I'm very worried about having a larger one or having issues after startup due to poor quality work.

Any more details or learnings they you'd be willing and able to share for me to take back to my team would be greatly appreciated.

 

I'm glad to hear you're safe, but sorry to hear that some were hurt. I have worked in refineries and chemical plants for decades, and have been fortunate that safety has always been taken very seriously. Still, things have happened. The vast majority of the time, it is caused by human error. You can't overemphasize safety training.

 

I've seen his videos before. He hits the nail on the head. We have many many safety rules in refineries, it's absolutely crazy how many there are to remember. That's why we have group JSAs to get everyone on board to the hazards associated with each job task before we do the job. Unfortunately 90% of them are pencil whipped due to complacency and know it all attitudes.

The trade that I see in the refineries that go above and beyond, know their job scope the best, are most of aware of their surroundings, and bring up any safety issue they see, is the fire watch and hole watch crews. 75% of them are spot on, and can tell you every evac point, every muster point, every alarm sound and meaning, keep their work area clean, and constantly stay vigilant about safety . It blows mind. If we had the same percentage of welders, boilermakers, millwrights, etc adopt that same level of insight into safety, I'm confident the amount of incidents would drop drastically. Buttttt you know, they gotta be a badass and impress the guys for some reason

 

This wasn't human error I believe, it was a legitimate accident from what I'm hearing. But you know how rumors in the plants go.

Now what I heard was a flange was being welded, that had a pig inside of it to seal or blind flammable vapors because the blind point was too far away, and that the pig leaked through. A simple sniff with a gas monitor could have prevented this, and they will probably make it a standard procedure after this incident.

Always tell your people it's OK to upgrade your PPE above what is required, it's always OK to get an atmosphere tested if you deem it unsafe, and you always have the ability to stop work. Never work until you feel it is safe to do so.

One of the big problems in our line of work, and most others, are hand injuries. Impact gloves are a must, they've saved me many times, and evertime I've vever gotten a hand injury myself, impact gloves could have prevented it. Hell, we make our guys wear them anytime they enter the unit. A simple fall can turn into a major hand injury depending on what you land on.

Housekeeping is another big deal, a cluttered worksite is an unsafe worksite. Clean before during and after shift. As a safety man, if I walk up to a jobsite, and its clean, organized, and everyone has there PPE on correctly, I know for a fact there permits and JSAs are correct, and everyone is locked out on the lockbox.

Walking is working, have a clear line of travel, don't get distracted by the fancy big crane they just brought into the unit, watch where you're walking. Turnarounds are full of trip hazards.

Don't be afraid to make an example out of someone if too many people are breaking the rules, I hate to fire people, but it gets the point across to everyone else that the plant isn't playing around.

Safety glasses worn correctly, I know they fog up alot, I've heard that anti fog stuff for scuba divers works great for safety glasses. I haven't tried it before, but im going to order some

Tool lanyards when working at heights are a MUST! Along with netting and toe boards. If you've ever dropped an 1 7/8 wrench from 100ft, you're stomach drops just as fast as that wrench and all you can do is tense up and hope it doesn't hit anyone. This is the one of the simplest ways to kill your co worker, that is also 100% preventable.

Joint job site visits. If contractors are going to be working near each other, have the fireman's get together and inform each other what jobs they have going on so they don't put each other in harms way. I had someone years ago remove asbestos insulation right above where I was working. Not good.

Good communication in any working environment. An older guy on my crew lost half his thumb due to miscommunication while using a high torque slim line wrench, set to 8800lbs. The young kid operating the button pushed it on a head nod, instead of waiting for a verbal command.

Quality of work!!! Re work will get you hurt! The guy who lost half his thumb? It happened because they had to re verify the torque, it wasn't correct the first time. Do it right the first time, if you don't, you re introduce all the hazards once more, and under a worse mindset because now you are rushing to get the job done.

I have so much more but I feel this is getting long winded.

 

All good points, but only if the company actually backs it. I work for a company that preaches safety to the highest degree, but then you get write ups for any accident while also being rushed to get 12 hours work done in an 8 hour shift. Don't you dare hit OT, and your work better be done.

The single biggest safety issue I have EVER seen, is management. MSHA views it as such, too. Look at any MSHA case, and management is almost always cited as partially or completely at fault and fined. It's either lack of management, or management pushing beyond what safety allows.



Veteran friend told me "Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast." That is something that resonated on safety, and on effective training for any job task. Don't worry about speed. Speed comes with repetition and practice. Instead, make sure you are doing it perfectly. Every. Single. Time. You'll have more productive, capable, confident and safe employees in the long run.

 

100%!!! I try to be engaging and be a good coach during safety meetings, I come from being on my tools since I was 18, and have only been in safety 2 years so far. So I can get my point across better than someone who just has a safety degree and has never actually been in the field.

I've been the safest when I have a good safety guy who would engage everybody in the safety meetings, and who could walk up to a job and coach me on how to do the job correctly, while keeping it lighthearted and fun. Nobody wants a safety cop. I've found the only people that I have to be an asshole to, are the ones who are assholes to me and just hate safety guys, which is very rare.

I'm gonna steal you little "slow is smooth" line

 

It’s the same everywhere. I could not get away from O&G fast enough after TPC Port Neches happened. That incident alone is a great example to anyone in O&G or looking to get into O&G of how mgmt’s practice of “acceptable loss” is proof positive that their ‘safety before solvency’ messages are complete bullshit. But it’s the same in any industry. YOU HAVE to watch your own ass out there. That’s all there is to it.

That said, I’ve NEVER found a carber plug, a pig, or any similar implement a viable form of isolation for hot work. There are too many damned variables involved with those things. I’ve installed a great many of them and I hated signing off on them every single time.

 

I only heard it was a pig, but it could have been one of the rumors floating around. Time will tell. But I agree, it's too dangerous of a field to get into. The money is fantastic, but you can't enjoy it from the hospital or the grave. I'm thankful that our company and our management takes safety seriously, and they actually do care, at least all of the site managers that I've worked with. Other companies I've worked for though, I've seen some of the shady stuff that they pull, and I left quick.

 

Due to another employee’s negligence in 1997, I’ve got a wrecked back and one of my arms still hurts and doesn’t have full range of motion. One of the many times I’ve paid for trusting someone else.

 

That's the trouble with the place I work. Every manager is all about safety when there is anyone that doesn't work for them in the room, but it's all BS for show. That's part of why I got out of the field stuff and went to an office job. One guy in my department was on workman's comp for a back injury because the d-bag director didn't like to have more than one body on a job. He was moving and loading 200+ pound pieces of steel for cell towers by himself in crap conditions and got hurt. First thing he was assigned to do after being out for a month was the exact same task with no help.

 

I really hate to hear that, back problems are the worst. I've been reading a book called The Back Mechanic after I herniateda couple discs several years ago . I definitely suggest checking it out. The Dr that wrote it has helped many people and is on the forefront of, ummm, backs lol, including world record holding power lifters that have split vertebrae in half, completely heal without surgery and go on to set more records.

 

I enjoyed many years in the field. The last few though…. Turnover happened, the younger generation wasn’t interested in learning(they played into the notion that Ops just sit around and get paid to do so), more and more companies hire whoever to do whatever, margins trump everything, and good safety people leave too. The biggest dickheaded safety people are the way they are for a reason. They’ve seen the most shit.

I hate to hear about the incident y’all went through. But I’m glad to hear that your company seems to be taking it seriously. Don’t let them pull will over your eyes though. If it feels like there are obvious ways to avoid future incidents like this that can be written into PSM, there probably are. Keep your people safe!

 

That's really shitty management and I hate to hear that happened. I've have had some incidents on our crews, but from everything I have seen, our company does take care of its people. If they get an injury, we get them medical attention, and we let them come to work and sit in the office to help with paperwork for the reminder of the job because they still need to get paid. And we always bring them to the next job as well. If they aren't 100% by then, we give them easy jobs till they get healed up.

Now we have had a couple people "claim" to get injured and try to get out of work and get free money, but it's pretty obvious when they do it.

 

I'm pretty sure continuous gas monitoring/testing is required for any hot work on our site, especially welding. There are also lots of approvals required to use a carber plug for isolation. We use those more for on the run project work. In turnaround, I would expect the whole unit to be blinded (depending on where exactly the work is, obviously).

Our site requires impact gloves for everyone now. I'm surprised they don't require spoggles (safety glasses sealed with a piece of rubber or foam to keep dust out); the site I was at before did and most of our contractors have chosen to upgrade to them.

We've had lots of issues with walking and falling objects. Housekeeping is always a nightmare in turnaround.

Doesn't look like anything has hit the news yet.

 

Absolutely. Our company wasn't involved, it was another contractor, but we are definitely going to be going over what happened and see what we can implement to help mitigate things like this in the future.

 

Hey man. We're in Lake Charles area where there are lots if refineries. Was it one of those. Wife and I are on vacation and deal with lots of those. PM me if you don't want to call them out

 

I'm not sure exactly what happened, just going off of what I heard from someone else. I do know every weld made has to be under fresh air here. So maybe they didn't have gas testing for that reason? Or they couldn't test because it would have melted the wand, had they put it in the flange he was welding. But again, it could have been a completely differnt scenario and I may be totally wrong on the info, I'm just going off of secondhand information, so take it with a grain of salt, usually lines are flushed, steamed, and blinded. I've never seen anyone plug a line to blind it before welding during a turnaround, so the guy telling me that could have been full of it, but it's the only thing I heard.

The only plant that I've been to that required spoggles was phillips 66 in Borger tx, because it's so windy! I personally hate spoggles because they fog up so much more here in the south where it's hot and humid, but when they require them I wear them!

 

I know there was a lot of resistance to the spoggles initially but, once I got used to them, I came to prefer them to safety glasses. I just don't feel that protected by safety glasses any more.

One of my former colleagues cut his eye when he walked into a valve and the stem pushed the corner of his glasses into his eye. But the root cause there was trying to read a sample tag while walking.

 

Early on in my supervision career I worked in Elkhart Yard and was fortunate enough to have an older gentleman working for me. Roosevelt Jackson. I learned so much from Rosey. Everything he did from tying his bootlaces to inspection of equipment was intentional and deliberately done. RIP Rosey.

 

Ouch! That had to hurt! I agree, I do feel much more protected with spoggles. If its not hot they aren't bad to wear. I've opted to wear a full face mask before with P100 filters because my glasses and face shield fogged up so much. It was actually much better for that specific job and everyone on my crew followed suit.

Well guys I gotta get to bed, keep up the discussion on safety, alot of good info here that could be passed along to one another, and possibly save someone from an injury. You guys are awesome!

 

Anyway, if you're willing and able to share any learnings after the investigation is complete, I would really appreciate it and I'm sure my team (process safety) would as well. PM me if you don't want to post publically.

 

Will do!